Dr Paolo Macchiarini faces numerous accusations of scientific fraud and misconduct resulting in the death of two patients.
Photograph: Lorenzo Galassi/AP

Two judges are being dismissed from the panel that awards the Nobel prize for medicine as a result of a scandal around a surgeon accused of scientific negligence.

Anders Hamsten had previously resigned from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden over the employment of stem-cell surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. Harriet Wallberg, who was president of the university when Macchiarini was hired, was fired from her current job as chancellor of the Swedish higher education authority on Monday.

Macchiarini, who denies any wrongdoing, faces numerous accusations of scientific fraud and misconduct resulting in the death of two patients. Swedish prosecutors are investigating Macchiarini on suspicion of gross criminal negligence.

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The Swedish news agency TT quoted the panel’s secretary, Thomas Perlmann, as saying he would ask them to resign from the 50-member body, which will award the prize for medicine in October. The panel made no further comment.

Macchiarini was employed as a researcher into stem-cell biology at the Karolinska Institutet and consultant at Karolinska University hospital in 2010. He was fired in March when the institute said he had supplied false information on his CV and was guilty of scientific negligence after two of his patients died.

An investigation last week showed three operations conducted at the Karolinska University hospital in which Macchiarini transplanted synthetic tracheas coated with stem cells were performed before sufficient study had been done on the procedure and that the operations could not be justified on the grounds of being life-saving.

Two of the patients have since died while the third remains in hospital.

Karolinska Institutet’s Nobel assembly consists of 50 professors who decide who will receive the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Much of the work is done by the Nobel committee, which is appointed by the assembly.